World Bioenergy 2014 was a workshop for true change

In ten years the World Bioenergy trade fair and conference at Elmia in Jönköping, Sweden has gone from being a display window for Swedish bioenergy know-how to being a global workshop for an industry that is creating jobs, raising people out of poverty and slowing down climate change.

“This year we focused on workshops and discussions, which was a great success,” said Gustav Melin, CEO of Svebio, which organises World Bioenergy together with Elmia.

It all began in 2004 as a display of what Sweden had to offer. The world came to Jönköping to learn. When World Bioenergy was held for the sixth time in ten years on 3 to 5 June 2014 the roles had changed. The lectures had been replaced by the exchange of experiences.

Invest to save 100 billion euros a year

By making use of energy that already exists, it is possible to save 100 billion euros a year in heating and cooling Europe.

“We took the EU’s plans up to 2050 and broke down the statistics to the local level,” explained Sven Werner of Halmstad University during the final conference session at World Bioenergy at Elmia in Jönköping, Sweden.

He is leading an EU project called Heat Roadmap Europe. The starting point is the current prognosis for energy consumption up to 2050. The researchers have not altered anything in the original assumptions and fuel mixes. What they have done is to go down to the local level and find out the actual facts on the ground.

Nordic tradition makes the region a world leader

Jernforsen’s long experience is hard currency in other countries that have only recently gone down the bioenergy route. The company met more prospective customers from at home and abroad as an exhibitor at the World Bioenergy trade fair in Elmia in Jönköping, Sweden in June.

Now Neova can focus totally on peat

The deal with Lantmännen to create a merged company for pellets means that Neova can now focus totally on peat.

“Peat will become more important as a replacement for oil in order to cover peak load situations in district heating networks,” said Leif Olsson, a sales rep for Neova, which exhibited at World Bioenergy in Jönköping, Sweden in June.